Grain carts are farm implements that are typically towed behind a tractor and are used to transport harvested grain from other implements, such as combines, and deliver the grain to trucks or other hauling devices away from the harvest field. The use of grain carts allows the harvester to unload in the field to increase efficiency and so trucks can remain off the field.
Grain carts typically include a storage carrier that further includes at a with a total capacity ranging from several hundred to over one thousand bushels of grain. To unload the grain from the cart, grain carts employ a conveying device such as an auger to draw grain from the bottom of the hopper and convey it to a discharge end. At the discharge end the material is carried through a feed tube by a further auger that deposits the grain to a discharge location. The conveyor transports grain from the base of the hopper upward so that it may be deposited into another container which can be a transport truck when transporting grain or can be a seeder when the cart is used to fill the seed tank of a seeder.
At the bottom of the hopper, where the conveyor meets the hopper, is typically a door that must be opened in order for grain to flow onto the conveyor. The door serves the purpose of keeping the grain or other material in the hopper until the operator desires to remove the material, and also of allowing the conveyor to come up to speed while under minimal load before the grain is loaded onto the conveyor. To provide power to the conveyor, grain carts are typically driven by a Power Take-off (“PTO”) driveshaft typically located at the rear end of a tractor.